Front and back arise from each other.

Difficult and easy determine each other.

High and low define each other.

Long and short measure each other.

Sound and silence echo each other.

Being and non-being are each other.

(Lao Tzu)

Real life...

In reality, we typically experience a mixture of positive and negative events. Sometimes things go in our favour, sometimes they do not.

Although this is less palatable than continual success, it is simply how things are. Balance involves good and bad, difficult and easy, favourable and unfavourable. This is what balance means...

Seeking to avoid the negative?

Usually, we desire one element (success) whilst seeking to avoid a less desirable alternative (failure). Happiness without sorrow. Health without illness.

Unbalanced is the norm?

Do you sleep well? Are you clumsy? Is your life hurried and rushed? Do you have time for yourself? Is your back aching or stiff, especially around the base of the neck and the shoulders?

Are your moods erratic? Do you get headaches a lot?

Most people experience imbalance: it often involves work, relationships, diet, poor body use and careless exercise. People come to accept the lack of balance in their lives and do not imagine that there can be another way.

 Research shows that people’s ability to stand on one leg is an indicator of health and that getting better at standing on one leg can add to fitness and potentially lifespan. The inability to balance on one leg for 20 seconds or longer is linked in otherwise healthy people to an increased risk of small blood vessel damage in the brain and reduced ability to understand ideas.

The human body, when standing upright, is inherently unstable. We have a very small base of support relative to our height and width. When in good health we rely on our central and peripheral nervous system to integrate all the information coming in from our balance senses (eyes, inner ears and feedback from muscles and joints). We then engage the right muscles (feet, ankle, leg and core muscles, sometimes even the arm muscles) at the right time to make the necessary adjustments to our posture to stay upright.

(Professor Dawn Skelton)

Balancing

Heightened physical, emotional and psychological awareness are all hallmarks of long-term tai chi training.

The student possesses the ability to sustain attention, avoid over-thinking, evaluating and judging. They learn to attune to the flow of what is taking place; to find harmony and balance.

6 ways to improve your balance

http://www.prevention.com/fitness/fitness-tips/6-ways-improve-your-balance

Faulty awareness

People are seldom aware of physical faults; their sense of balance is not reliable. When most students are asked to adopt a shoulder-width stance with the insides of the feet parallel, they usually have one foot askew but feel as if they don't. Then they look.

Balance

The life of a martial artist is simple:

1. You attend classes
2. You study
3. You practice

Somewhere along the line the training begins to affect your life.
You become calmer and more balanced.
You stop being so afraid.
You move systematically through the syllabus.
The student stops blaming other people for the problems in their life.
They take responsibility.
They mature.
They find balance.